Minor threatened girls with a knife and cut their hair – did the court return the child to a mother with such upbringing?

The Vinnytsia Court of Appeal upheld the decision to remove the child from the mother without depriving her of parental rights.

Circumstances of case No. 127/656/24

In January 2024, the Child Services of the Vinnytsia City Council filed a lawsuit to remove the minor son from the mother without depriving her of parental rights and to recover child support.

The basis for the lawsuit was the mother's improper fulfillment of parental duties regarding the child's upbringing. Since 2017, the child had repeatedly been registered with the Child Services as being in difficult life circumstances. In 2019, the service had already filed a similar lawsuit due to reports of the mother brutally beating her son, but the claim was then denied.

According to the case materials, the child lived with the mother in a one-room apartment, the sanitary condition of which was repeatedly recognized as conditionally satisfactory: unpleasant odors, scattered belongings, and dirty dishes were periodically recorded in the dwelling.

Throughout 2023, the minor repeatedly committed unlawful acts against young girls: attacked them, threatened them with a knife or scissors, and cut their hair, causing severe psychological trauma. The Child Services believed that such actions were possible due to the mother's lack of proper control.

The mother was repeatedly held administratively liable under Article 184 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses (failure of parents to fulfill child-rearing duties). Individual preventive work conducted by the juvenile prevention sector, the social services center, and the Child Services yielded no positive results.

In October 2023, the mother initially agreed to send her son to a social and psychological rehabilitation center for children but later refused this assistance. In December 2023, a criminal case was opened against the minor under Part 4 of Article 187 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (robbery) after an attack on a 9-year-old girl with a knife threat and seizure of her phone.

The case materials contain numerous reports on the inspection of living conditions, protocols on administrative offenses, character references, conclusions of the commission on child rights protection, witness testimonies (police officers, juvenile prevention workers, lyceum staff, social services, and neighbors), confirming the mother's systematic failure to fulfill parental duties, lack of control over the child's behavior, and unsatisfactory living conditions.

What the court decided

On April 10, 2025, the Vinnytsia City Court of Vinnytsia region satisfied the Child Services' claim: the minor was removed from the mother without depriving her of parental rights and placed under the guardianship of the guardianship authorities of the Vinnytsia City Council. Child support was also recovered in the amount of a share of the mother's income, but not less than 50% of the subsistence minimum for a child of the respective age, starting from January 2024.

The mother filed an appeal, claiming that the evidence of evasion from parental duties was insufficient, and previous administrative penalties had expired according to Article 39 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. She also referred to the child's improved behavior after working with psychologists and that the son had turned 15 at the time of the appeal.

On May 12, 2026, the Vinnytsia Court of Appeal, composed of a panel of judges (presiding judge Kovalchuk O. V., judges Sala T. B., Mikhasishin I. V.), dismissed the appeal and left the first-instance court's decision unchanged.

The appellate court confirmed that the collected evidence indicated prolonged systematic failure by the mother to fulfill duties regarding upbringing, control, and ensuring a safe environment for the child. The court noted that leaving the child with the mother posed a threat to the child's life, health, and moral upbringing, and removal without deprivation of parental rights at the time of the decision corresponded to the child's best interests according to the Family Code of Ukraine, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights.

The court stated that this decision is temporary and does not deprive the mother of the opportunity to apply to the court in the future for the child's return, provided the reasons that led to the removal are eliminated.

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